This film, by one of India's female directors Vijaya Mehta, stars art-house veteran Naseeruddin Shah as Piroj, a miserable sad-sack of a man. When Piroj dawdles in deciding whether to marry Jeroo (Shabana Azmi), a girl selected for him by a matchmaker, his best friend Pesi (played by Anupam Kher, a prolific Bollywood actor best known to Western audiences as Parminder Nagra’s father in Bend It Like Beckham) marries her instead, and for the rest of his life Piroj harbors an idealized fantasy of Jeroo and her marriage that bears little resemblance to the life she and Pesi actually lead.
Pestonjee has its sweet and funny moments, and provides an interesting window into the life of well-to-do urban Parsees, but on the whole I found the film slow and the characters grating and annoying. Jeroo is especially grating, an unfortunate waste of GOAT's absolute favorite actress. A highlight is a vampish turn by a young-ish Kirron Kher as the woman Pesi cavorts with (to Piroj's horror) as his marriage stagnates. Kirron is Anupam's real-life wife, and today she is still charming but ubiquitous in the "mother role" in nearly ever major Bollywood release.
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